Spirituality and moral precepts

there are so many spirtual people that are unaware of it and never make a big deal out of it. they are not even religious but are just plain old good hearted people. for me these are the most spiritual people around.
look out for them, they can make your day shine!
there are lots of other people who practice some sort of religion or practice all their lives who are just plain assholes and grouches. i know a few Buddhists like that and they are a real pain to be around.
so sprirtuality often can be mistaken , i think one finds it in simple and humble and kind folks.

I think there is a duality within us, one emotional and one intellectual. Conscience is emotional and ego is intellectual. But I have a saying “at our core we are emotional beings, thought is but a satellite in orbit”, so although we can build up an intellectual conscience based on what we have learned through our own reasoning or been taught or told by others, we have this feeling within our emotions that tells us if something is wrong.
Even if we have done everything right according to this intellectual and often common belief of learned morality, we may feel guilt. This is because what was learned is actually wrong. Guilt is an emotional reaction of the conscience, the true conscience, not the ego designed artificial conscience learned.
As much as we can think, there is what is called “gut feeling” intuition which is another emotional reaction of the conscience. These are always right if you can tune to them, if they are wrong then this means your ego over-rode the message to it’s cause or preference.
The ego is incredibly useful because with out it we can not think, but remember we are emotional beings at our core and to be true to that the ego must not create conflict with the conscience otherwise one will have to go and then, either way, you are but half a human being.

Well said Dick. I just mean that when we feel guilt it is a sign of conflict between conscience and ego, which is caused by ego. If you can discipline the ego in such a way that it (the ego) does not cause you to feel guilt then you have achieved spirituality. But one should not confuse separation from the conscience, therefore no effective guilt, as spirituality. Because the concience is emotional, if you retain emotion yet are abscent of guilt, chances are you are spiritual, but if you have no emotion then chances are you have separated from the conscience.
You have an interesting take that I will consider.

I don’t like to include instinct in this debate bacause instinct is sucking on your mums tit, it is breathing and blinking. Instinct is a function of the cereberal cortex not the cerebellum, as thought and emotion. Instinct is not emotion or thought. Intuition is not an instinct it is an emotion. These are higher functions.

@DIck: noumenal concepts, such as the spiritual, require a contextual framework in which to be described. Word definitions alone do not get you very far, as the term is too subjective. In modern interpretation, spiritual is usually associated with the movement of Qi or Prana (as in sex being a “spiritual” experience).

Pre-”New Age” systems have a more formalized structure for the spiritual. My perspective, based on studies of the concept going back as far as 13th century Asatru, show common factors: biological organisms are composed of three components: corpus, anima and animus–the body, soul and spirit. (Soul is often equated with “mind,” particularly in the New Age “Mind/Body/Spirit” function.)

Corpus is the physical body, including chemical and electro-magnetic effects. Concepts associated with the body are the basic physical laws that we attribute to all inanimate structure.

Anima is the soul, what “animates” the corpus into a living organism. As such, the soul is still considered to be physical, but just invisible. The anima is normally associated with light or heat (the “fire of life”, actually qi, ch’i or prana), whereas the corpus is associated with earth and water (the chemicals and fluids of the body). The soul is associated with the concept of “morality,” and the system of morals is derived from biological necessity (mating, fighting, social interaction, etc).

The animus is the spirit, not to be confused with the soul. It literally means “spirit”–or “intellect”–in Latin. The animus is nonphysical, a development OF life, not the cause of it. It is associated with the element of air and it is from the animus that we obtain the concept of “ethics.” Ethics are NOT driven by biological necessity (as morality is), but by reason. The spirit and intellect are basically synonymous.

“Spirituality” occurs when a person uses their intellect in combination with introspection to understand themselves–for it is then that they understand all the rules that went into their makeup, and can also begin to see it in others. It is at this point where the old phrase, “do unto others, as you would have others do unto you” has meaning.

Ahhh so I have to admit–I started to read the whole thread. Really, I did. But sometimes being Yin and bubbly means having ADD and just wanting to jump up and down and all around and to address only a few of the things you read…

So here goes: there is the part of the brain that is the innermost and near the back where things like the fight or flight emotion is housed. That is a very primal area and I feel it no longer really serves us. We are better than having only those two not-always-the-best-option options and we aren’t about to be eaten by a dinosaur so we don’t have to run.

I just know that with spirituality people can confuse religion and ‘moral obligations’ or whatever you want to call them. I honestly think that morals (which are often completely skewed and twisted remnants of what people would have once considered the “right thing” to do) are often mislabeled as the ‘right thing to do’ and we seriously have to throw out morality and start fresh with the universe and honoring it and everybody and thing in it to truly reach our spiritual plane of existence…

I hope that makes sense. It does to me. xD

Lol, thanks Bruce, I’m not a biologist. Does this mean that ego exists in all life forms? Because you say the primary function of the ego complex is self preservation, even micro organisms demonstrate basic survival behaviours, including eating and reproducing.

@Dick: [I doubt many people would define “soul” in such a way]: I tend to stick with the definitions used by the founders of psychology–a bit “19th century”, I know, but there is a great deal of published material for further inquiry, if the topic is of interest. And I concur; these days, everyone defines things in their personal weltanschauung. Easier to have misunderstandings that way! :-)

@Ray: [I believe morality is corrupted by intellect]: By the same logic, the intellect would also form the basis of ethical behavior. One can easily rationalize abominable acts (see “Politics”), whereas ethics cannot be rationalized, as they are reasoned behavior.

In all cases, it still comes down to how you define the terms in question: morality, ethics, spirituality, religion, feelings, thinking, intuition, sensation… to communicate effectively these days, you almost have to ignore the words and get an understanding of the concept behind the word.